The 5 Best Carpet Cleaners to Buy For Your Home in 2018

UPDATED JANUARY 2018 | BY KATE APPLESON

Carpets are wonderful for keeping a home feeling cozy and dampening the sound and feel of footsteps on hard floors. They're not so wonderful at staying clean, however, absorbing spills and dirt so easily that a solid-colored carpet can look like leopard print in just a few months. Having the right carpet cleaner is essential for keeping a carpeted home tidy, especially if you have kids or pets.

Bissell and Hoover dominate the marketplace, but there are huge cost and capability differences between their carpet cleaners. We handpicked the best carpet cleaners on the market for you, and break down the features you need for your specific home and budget.

Prices in this normally stable market have dropped today for Black Friday, with the best deal we've ever seen on our Best Overall pick below.

The Hoover FH50150 Power Scrub Deluxe is the bestselling carpet cleaner on the market for a simple reason: it delivers unmatched performance for an affordable price.

The FH50150's SpinScrub Brush System creates 360-degree rotation over every carpet fiber, allowing you to clean each side of the carpet strand with just one pass. That helps users avoid stains that don't show when the carpet pile is against the grain, only to reveal themselves later.

The FH50150 Power Scrub Deluxe is very light for a full-strength cleaner, weighing in at the size of a large upright at 19 pounds. That means you can maneuver it around a large home, and a long eight-foot extension hose and 360 SpinScrub tool allow you to easily clean stairs and upholstery.

Thousands of satisfied owners rave about the cleaning quality at a great value price. We agree, and think the Hoover FH50150 is the best bet for most buyers. Check Amazon Price >>

The Bissell 3624 SpotClean is an ideal choice for buyers with smaller spaces or frequent carpet spots who don't want the bulk of a large machine.

The 3624 SpotClean is built like a small canister vacuum, with a 10 x 14 x 14 inch portable cleaning canister that comes in at a third of the height of upright carpet cleaners. This allows it to fit snugly into various storage spaces, and its long hosed nozzle also means you can carry it around the house to reach stairs and upholstery more easily. Though it is easy to transport, the 3624 Spotclean it is a full-strength cleaner with excellent suction.

We wouldn't recommend the Bissell Spotclean 3624 for large 3+ bedroom homes, as it doesn't have the standing convenience and coverage capacity of an upright like our best overall pick. That said, if you have a smaller home with limited storage capacity and still need a full-strength cleaner, the 3624 SpotClean will keep your carpets looking fresh. Check Amazon Rating >>

The Bissell Big Green Profession Grade Carpet Cleaner has the most flawless cleaning effectiveness of any device on our list, delivering commercial-level cleaning power that can make any home feel like the carpets were just installed.

The Big Green is built for serious efforts: it has large capacity tanks so you don't have to waste time and energy refilling, and its deep cleaning brushes and engine mean it weighs 51 pounds.

It won't break down and sucks up most of the water it uses, leaving your carpets dry faster than competitors. It also efficiently cleans when you go forwards and backwards, while most machines only operate in a forward motion.

The Bissell PowerLifter PowerBrush is a straightforward deep carpet cleaner that gives owners exactly what they're looking for: a reliable upright clean at an affordable price.

The Bissell Powerlifter has a full-sized cleaning surface with four rows of stiff dual-rotating DirtLifter Power Brushes.

The Powerlifter offers the cleaning strength of more expensive uprights, but without the bells and whistles - it doesn't sport a hose or any traditional extensions, which allowed Bissell to decrease the size and price. It's small for an upright, which city-dwellers love, but some owners say the water tank is too small.

While an effective cleaner, the Bissell PowerLifter is not much cheaper than our best overall pick from Hoover, which offers far more accessories and a deeper clean due to its Spinscrub Brush System. We recommend that users stick with the Hoover FH50150, but if you're pressed to save a few bucks the Bissell Powerlifter will do the job! Check Amazon Price >>

The Hoover Power Scrub Elite Pet Carpet Cleaner is the pet-upgraded version of our best overall pick, for dog and cat owners who need frequent quick cleaning power and antimicrobial protection.

The Hoover Power Scrub Elite Pet has two cleaning modes: a strong deep clean mode and a quick clean, fast-drying mode, designed for buyers who have to clean their carpets frequently due to surface pet grime. The HeatForce function decreases drying time to a brief 45 minutes, meaning you can regularly clean paw prints and dirt without waiting half a day for your carpet to dry.

The Elite Pet's SpinScrub Brush System is designed to be antimicrobial, which means it helps prevent nasty carpet smells and bacteria while it cleans. The 2-1 Pet Tool extension is also antimicrobial, and has rubber and brush inserts for different stain types.

It's more expensive than our best overall pick, but if you're a dog or cat owner who cleans your carpet regularly, spending the extra bucks to upgrade to the Hoover Power Scrub Elite Pet could be well worth the time saved and bacteria removed. Check Amazon Rating >>

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